Felisha Wild from Our Daily Salt

by Maureen Shaw

If you are on Twitter, there’s a very good chance that you know Felisha Wild, @cheffelisha. That’s where I met her too. She was one of the first to make me feel welcome and one of the first people who went out of her way to let me know she wanted to be my friend. With the anonymity of the net and the hundreds of thousands of people you meet online every year, few people stand out in the same way.

Felisha is a trained chef and lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with her partner, 2 dogs and five children between them who are in and out of the house. Felisha cooks for everyone even if they aren’t vegan or vegetarian but that’s about all you’ll find on her website at Our Daily Salt.

She’s also feisty. Last year she did a post on ending food pornography (sacrilege to many) saying that pretty pictures and overly complex recipes are suitable for people to wank off to. I laughed but I also understood where she was coming from. She believes strongly that we should look toward the delicious beauty and simplicity of fresh ingredients. She warns of over-styling the dishes we create as we’re giving our readers the impression that their preparation will look that good without painstaking effort.

Speaking of feisty – know anyone who decided one day that she really wanted a new kitchen so she could play with food? We all know someone like that – I’d love a new kitchen. Know anyone who’s remodeled their kitchen from top to bottom all by themselves? We’re talking rip the entire kitchen out, including the floor, wiring, cabinets and appliances and then build it all back step by step? That’s what Felisha’s online friends watched her do last year. She made 16 video updates of her kitchen transformation.

Once Felisha finished the kitchen, she had a bit of wood left over so decided to make a cutting board from the leftovers. It looked so good and she enjoyed making it so much that she decided to sell them through her blog. To let everyone know, she ran a contest and had quite a few entries. @Nelly22 from Cooking With Books won the cutting board.

I didn’t win so I decided to buy one and have it shipped all the way to Australia. I know, I’m probably nuts but I really wanted one because I knew that it would be the most beautifully made cutting board I could buy.

I was very pleased with both the quality and the service. It seemed like she started building my cutting board within 24 hours of receiving my payment and within a week or two I had it in my hot little hands. It sits next to my stove and I use it every day.

All her cutting boards come with information about the board as well as instructions on how to keep a cutting board in top shape so it will last for years. Whenever John comes to the kitchen to fix a sandwich he always uses this board. I asked him one day why did didn’t use one of the other boards and he said this one was really sturdy.

“It’s a man’s board,” he said. I’m not quite sure how a cutting board can be manly but hey, it was a sandwich I didn’t have to fix.

If you would like to check out Felisha’s handmade cutting boards, she’d love to see you. 🙂 She’s very proud of them and well she should be too!

When she’s not making cutting boards, working in her garden, cooking for other people or enjoying the company of her partner, she also has other things to sell like a wrought iron pot rack, caldelabra and a nifty bottle opener amongst other things. Each piece is made to order by master blacksmith Kent Knapp.

Doesn’t that opener look snappy? I might have to get one of those one day soon.

If you happen to view Felisha’s videos you might happen to see her gorgeous golden-doodle, Reina. She’s only a couple of years old but I think she’s just gorgeous.

I have an “oodle” too named Charlie and think a poodle cross is just the best dog you can get. Felisha even has a couple of recipes for dog food on her site.

Felisha has a sweet tooth and you will see a lot of desserts on her blog. That makes me very happy because I have a sweet tooth the size of Texas. I have to be careful because I’ll have an ass the same size!

The recipe she’s sharing with us today is her Gingerbread cookies. These aren’t hard but pillowy soft and bursting with flavor. I know this because it’s written in her recipe. She says we’ll love them and one peek at the recipe and I tend to agree with her.

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Maureen is the owner of OrgasmicChef.com, EasyRecipePlugin.com, Fooderific.com and shares FoodWriterFriday with Helene Dsouza from MasalaHerb.com.
She loves to cook and really loves to eat and entertain. She's on a quest to prove there ARE recipes better than sex. She's come close a time or two so she's still searching.